During a semester-long project, third year Graphic Design students of the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK, The Hague) proposed new concepts for the classification of space by entirely refusing political borders and rather exploring environmental territories, social boundaries, technological reach and mental limits.

We are continuously faced with rapid globalization and the rise of the Internet allowing or international accessibility and exchange. However, simultaneously we experience violent enforcement and emphasize on government isolationism, as witnessed recently in the United States and Great Britain. Making the randomness of a birthplace is the new ruling principle. The Borderless States project attempts to tackle the conflict between these two systems, students propose and visualize alternative models of interconnected societies in the form of audio-visual, printed, interactive and object-based design research projects.

Claiming any kind of a domain or trying to give it a name, naturally creates exclusion. So to support rethinking the concept of borders, Michel Foucault promotes in his interview ‘Questions on Geography’ the use of the term ‘archipelago’ as a true geographical metaphor that is free of political, economical, religious, juridical, and discriminatory connotations. It could be the first step towards a new borderless society as it creates new perspectives on the role of the land that we inhabit.